Colombia President Iván Duque signed today at the Casa de Nariño a $245 million USD agreement to help Colombia increase protection of its magnificent natural wealth and move closer to protecting 30 percent of the country’s land and sea by 2030.

Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Colombia program has released the first-known drone footage of wild Orinoco crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius) -- a Critically Endangered reptile found in northern areas of South America.

WCS scientists working in the vast Amazon Basin have contributed more than 57,000 camera trap images for a new study published in the journal Ecology by an international team of 120 research institutions.

Colombia was the host country of the II High-Level Conference of the Americas on Illegal Wildlife Trade, held on April 5 and 6 in Cartagena de Indias.

The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, together with the Embassy of the United Kingdom, lead the organization of the II High-Level Conference of the Americas on Illegal Trade in Wildlife from April 5-6, which is aimed at joining efforts and strengthening cooperation for the prevention and control of illicit wildlife trafficking in the Americas.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today that Swann Htet Naing Aung of WCS Myanmar, William Ferrufino of WCS Bolivia, and Fernando Ayerbe of WCS Colombia have been honored with a Disney Conservation Hero Award.

Ratifying its global commitments, the Government of Colombia has recently declared Isla Ají a new marine protected area (MPA). Spanning 24,600 ha (95 square miles), this important and beautiful nature reserve will serve to protect threatened wildlife and safeguard the wellbeing of local coastal communities who depend on the area for food and their livelihoods. 

By analyzing records in countries of the Amazon and Orinoco basins—which include Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador—a paper published today in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation, categorized 85 past and present initiatives or projects that work to preserve the South American River Turtle, or charapa (Podocnemis expansa), a critically endangered species. These projects are protecting more than 147,000 female turtles across the basin, an unprecedented figure.